FIDI Global Alliance held its Delegates Meeting during the IAM Convention in Chicago, covering the most pressing issues for our organisation in the months to come. FIDI Customer Relations Officer Lydia Cope reports on the discussions and outcomes
The FIDI office is developing and implementing a quarterly business cycle barometer, in which we will gauge the trends in our FIDI industry businesses – in terms of revenue growth, margin growth, employment and
other metrics.
During the FIDI Applicant objection phase, the following additional information will be shared with FIDI Affiliates: legal name, website, CEO, affiliations and warehouse address.
FIDI is addressing the changing industry landscape on behalf of its members and is consistently looking to adapt and to enhance its core member benefits. FIDI Delegates shared their feedback during the meeting, which the FIDI Board will take into account as it continues on the journey to updating FIDI services and its structure.
The FAIM Supervisory Committee reported that FAIM 3.2 results have been very positive, with 81 existing Affiliates successfully achieving certification and, as FIDI Focus went to press, another 43 applicants were in the process. The financial assessment pilot must be carried out by all Affiliates by 31 December 2019, so please ensure you submit your financial data to allow this to be completed in good time.
The new quality certification for DSP services is ready to roll out early next year. John Prooij, Project Manager Quality and Risk, confirmed several Affiliates are taking part in a pilot of the certification scheme, on the same day as their scheduled FAIM 3.2 audits.
The certification process will be open to all Affiliates after the FIDI Conference in Osaka.
FIDI Academy participation at seminars continues to decline while online options are growing. The Academy is currently developing eight new webinars.
Some 12 per cent of FIDI’s membership has not yet completed the mandatory compliance training module. FIDI Associations should now encourage their members to complete the training.
FASI has seen two large payouts in the past 12 months because of Affiliates falling into administration. As a result, the FASI fund has reduced and will require a further cash injection from Affiliates to rebuild it. This item will be brought to members by the FIDI Associations and will be tabled for vote during the General Assembly in April 2020. There was a housekeeping update to the FASI rules, which was unanimously approved by Delegates. It states that all payments from FASI are made in euros, using the exchange rates on the day of decision for compensation by the FIDI Board.
Future FIDI Conferences were discussed, while preparations for Osaka 2020 are being finalised – the registration system for which will open in early December. For 2021, hotel contract negotiations are being finalised in Cannes, France, while the conference planning is also well under way for New Zealand in 2022.
FIDI support services are going well, with the FIDI office successfully mediating between Affiliates and no cases going to arbitration in the past two years. FIDI Customs Guides will go public from January 2020. Affiliates are invited to report companies falsely claiming FIDI affiliation or using the FIDI or FAIM logos, to protect FIDI branding.
The FIDI office has started an industry statistics project with the purpose of delivering a statistical report on the FIDI population, in terms of service scope, employment, number of moves and so on. Providing this information to the industry will enhance FIDI’s leadership position in the global mobility sector.
Standardisation in the industry, in view of developments such as blockchain, was discussed by delegates. FIDI is striving to keep pace with developments and is working to develop standards where a need for FIDI Affiliates is identified.
The FIDI 39 Club is collaborating with other industry young member groups – LacmaNext and IAM YP – on a new Global Green Initiative (GGI) to ensure the industry is able to adapt to tackle environmental matters. The initiative is new and members have been invited to submit logo designs for the project (see page 31).
FIDI’s marketing and communications department is growing and further investment has been made to ensure the FAIM label branding reaches customers worldwide. FIDI.org and FIDINET are undergoing a major overhaul with new sites being launched in January 2020. The internal FIDINET site will be accessible via fidi.org and will only require a single login, making this easier for Affiliates to access.
FIDI Focus has a new online site, which pulls key content from the magazine for online access. The new site can be accessed at www.fidifocus.org
FIDI membership fees have remained static for several years but will see a small increase, from 2020 to keep abreast of indexation and increasing costs, of €100 per Affiliate and €50 per Affiliated Branch. This was agreed by an EGA vote, immediately after the Delegates Meeting.
The 2020 Budget was presented by the FIDI Treasurer and consequently approved by the delegates in the EGA.
The FIDI Board is looking into a possible netting system for the FIDI community – where credit and debit dues are offset without the need of actual transfer of payments – and will present the options when available to the FIDI Associations for vote. Other industry organisations use such systems, saving their members significant time and money but it is yet to be seen if a system can support FIDI’s membership size.
The FIDI Charity Committee is aiming to close Operation Smile Honduras by the end of 2019, with funds in the account available to operate on a further 130 children. The missions were delayed because of a dengue fever outbreak in Honduras but is hoped they can go ahead in winter 2019.
The FIDI 39 Club Board was instrumental in selecting the new FIDI charity and, following a RFP process, selected Healing with Feeling in India. See page 17 for further information on the charity project that FIDI will support for the next three years. This was presented to the delegates, and fundraising will begin in early 2020.
FIDI conducted an Association questionnaire immediately before the Delegates Meeting, results of which will be used by the FIDI structure committee. The committee, led by former FIDI Treasurer Piet van Herk, has been created to look at how to enhance and improve FIDI’s structure to ensure that it remains relevant and meets its members’ needs in an ever evolving industry landscape.
